BY DAN HILDEBRAN
General manager
STARKE—State Rep. Bobby Payne has filed a bill that would create a statewide registry of dangerous dogs.
HB873 would require Florida’s agriculture department to maintain the registry, allowing the public to search the database for dogs declared dangerous by local authorities.
The bill is now slated to be heard by several committees.
It requires local animal control authorities to provide evidence to the state that dangerous dogs within their jurisdictions have been vaccinated for rabies, are secured within enclosures, have been permanently identified as dangerous with a tattoo or microchip, and have been spayed or neutered.
The bill would also require local animal control officials to verify that the owners have obtained the liability insurance now required under state law.
Payne represents the Keystone Heights area. His district also includes all of Putnam County and portions of St. Johns and Marion.
The bill comes after the August 2022 death of letter carrier Pamela Rock, who was mauled by five dogs in rural Putnam County.
State Attorney R.J. Larizza declined to prosecute the owner of the canines after an investigation concluded that the dogs’ owner tried to surrender the animals twice, including 10 days before the attack.
The report stated that before the fatal incident, at least one of the dogs attacked a 50-year-old man, sending him to the hospital, and charged a woman’s car, damaging the vehicle.
State law now makes the owners of dogs that attack people or other animals financially liable for their dog’s actions. If a dog has been declared dangerous and attacks after the declaration, the owner could face misdemeanor charges.
In the Rock fatality, the sheriff’s office recommended a misdemeanor charge for the owner of the five dogs, but Larizza’s office declined, citing the owner’s efforts to repair the fence that restrained the animals and his attempts to surrender the canines to animal control.
